On Friday, Steve had three little holes poked into his belly to repair a hernia. Gout over the summer. Hernia in the winter. [Insert old man joke here.] He has three little bloody gauzes on his belly that Ian has been calling "Daddy’s Strawberries."
Things have really slowed down since last year. Last spring, I was
teaching four classes, with three new prep periods. Ian was still in
nursery school and had lots of supplementary therapy. Over the summer,
I watched the kids and wrote a research paper. In the fall, I had more
new classes. I put in 80 hour weeks for months. All I did was feed
kids, do laundry, and read.
Now, things have eased up enormously. I’ve got more of a routine going
on now. There are neatly typed lectures in a three ring binder. The
tests are written and the review sheets organized.
We can start to have fun again.
When this stupid kitchen is finished, I am going to have dinner parties again. We’ve got tickets to see August: Osage County on Friday. I’m meeting buddies in the city for drinks and shopping on Saturday. Party on.
The boys have off from school this week, so I took Jonah into school with me today. He sat in my political theory class and listened to a lecture on Thomas Aquinas while playing Nintendo DS. I’m sure that the 31 other students were rather jealous.
When I was a kid, my dad took me to his American politics class at City College. It was in the old building, part of the original convent. I remember weird stuff. Like the office supply closet. It had neat piles of chalk and pencils and my dad let me pick out whatever I liked. I remember his name on his office door. I remember the stairwells. I remember that after class, a student handed me an origami crane.
I think that Jonah was most impressed with the TV lounge and the cafeteria. He got himself a cup of soup and crackers for lunch. He liked the idea of an office, a private place to get work done.
When you ask Jonah what he wants to be when he grow up, he’ll say "an historian. Or a pro football player. Maybe both."
Apt. 11d 
Not only that, now that the kids are older, they’re more independent. I can think about things when they’re around instead of being constantly called upon to watch/speak/negotiate/supervise (it still happens, but it’s not constant).
Today I brought them both to the office. We’re in Finals Week of our second term, and I had a meeting with a student about rewriting a paper. They played Webkinz on my computer while I did what I had to do.
At home this afternoon we’ve made cookies and played Cadoo and now they are making lists of Webkinz they want and giving them names. What’s a good name for a Schnauzer?
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So, basically, you should start Jonah on a) reading Herodotus and b) learning how to throw a perfect spiral….great ambitions, actually.
Wendy: may I respectfully submit “Colonel Klink” for your Schnauzer’s name?
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